Dual wiping device for a conveyor belt in which both wipers have a common pivotal support but operate independently of each other

ABSTRACT

Dual wipers for a conveyor belt in which both wipers have the same pivotal support and carry transversely extending wiping members with respect to the belt being wiped. Both wiping members are disposed on the same side of the common pivotal support and each has an independent adjustable weight or spring disposed on the other side of the pivotal support that yieldingly holds its wiping member in contact with the belt and independently of the other wiping member.

United States Patent 11 1 Olson [54] DUAL WIPING DEVICE FOR A CONVEYORBELT IN WHICH BOTH WIPERS HAVE A COMMON PIVOTAL SUPPORT BUT OPERATEINDEPENDENTLY OF EACH OTHER [76] Inventor: Laddie B. Olson, 2496 0Townsend Avenue, Haywood, Calif. 94544 [221 Filed: June 14,1971

21 Appl. No.2 152,673-

52 U.S. Cl ..l98/230 [51] Int. Cl ..B65g 45/00 [58] Field of Search..198/230 [5 6] Q References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Matson ..19s230 [4 1 Mar. 27, 1973 1,036,125 8/1912 King 198/230 X Primary Examiner-Edward A. Sroka Attorney-William R. Piper [57] ABSTRACT Dual wipers fora conveyor belt in which both wipers have the same pivotal support andcarry transversely extending wiping members with respect to the beltbeing wiped. Both wiping members are disposed on the same side of thecommon pivotal support and each has an independent adjustable weight orspring disposed on the other side of the pivotal support that yieldinglyholds its wiping member in contact with the belt and independently ofthe other wiping member.

5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEUHARZYIQYS 3,722,667

INVENTOR. LADDIE B. OLSON ATTORNEY DUAL WIPING DEVICE FOR A CONVEYORBELT IN WHICH BOTH WIPERS HAVE A COMMON PIVOTAL SUPPORT BUT OPERATEINDEPENDENTLY OF EACH OTHER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of theInvention Wipers for conveyor belts fail to work properly under all andvarying conditions regardless of what material is used for the wipingelement, such as metal, rubber, a revolving brush, a beater, etc. I havefound that it is necessary to have two wipers in which the wipingelements differ from each other in a varying degree of hardness. Both ofthese wipers when mounted on a common pivotal support will conservespace. The outer or first wiper can have a metal wiping element that cantake care of icy conditions of the belt or where the belt is conveyingsticky material. The second wiper can use the same pivotal support asthe first wiper and the wiping element of the second wiper could be ofrubber and the rubber element be disposed nearer to'the common pivotsupport than that of the metal wiping element. Other materials could beused for the wiping elements.

2. Description of the Prior Art The patent to Francis E. McGovern, U.S.Pat. No. 2,514,780, on a wiping mechanism for conveyor belts, issuedJuly ll, [950, discloses a first pair of parallel arms swingable about apivot. Each of these arms pivotally carries a second arm with the pivotpoints being at the centers of the second arms. A rectangular cradle ispivotally carried by each outer end of each second arm and each cradlesupports a pair of wiping elements, these being disposed on each sideof'the pivotal connection of the cradle with the second arm. Thisstructure provides four wiping elements that are yieldingly held incontact with the conveyor belt-by counterweights adjustably mounted onthe first pair of arms and on the opposite side of the pivot for thefirst arms fromthe four wiping elements.

The pair of wiping elements carried by a single cradle are disposed oneach side of a central pivotal support which means that when one wipingelement moves toward the conveyor belt, theother wiping element mustmove away from the belt an equivalent distance. In the present inventioneach wiping element operates independently of the other although bothhave the same pivotal support. Also in the above-mentioned patent, onecradle with its pair of wiping elements is pivotally carried at theforward ends of a pair of parallel and spaced apart arms. Then a secondcradle with its pair of wiping elements is pivotally carried at the rearends of the same pair of parallel and spaced apart arms. These paralleland spacedapart arms are then pivotally connected at their midpointstotwo other parallel arms that have a common pivot point and areprovided with adjustable counterweights to cause the four wipingelements on the two cradles to contact the conveyor belt with thedesired force. Again it should be noted that when the pair of wipingelements carried by one of the cradles is caused to move toward theconveyor belt, the

other pair of wiping elements carried by the other cra-.

dle will be caused to move away from the belt an equivalent distance.This is not true with my present invention as already explained.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of my invention is to provide a dualwiping device fora conveyor belt in which both wiping ele-- ments have acommon pivotal support, but operate independently of each other. In manycases a single wiping element is not sufficient to keep a conveyor beltclean. In icy weather or when the conveyor belt is handling extremelysticky material, a single wiping element cannot wipe the material fromthe belt without tearing or excessively wearing away the belt. If thebelt becomes worn or jagged, it permits fine strips of unwiped materialto pass through. For this reason a second wiping element is provided inmy device. The novel features of my device are the provision of a commonpivot for both of the wiping elements, the positioning of both of thewiping elements on the same side of the common pivot support, and theindependent operation of each wiping element from the other. I

. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERREDEMBODIMENT In carrying out my invention, I illustrate by way of examplea head pu l y, indicated generally at A, a conveyor belt B and a snubpulley C, see FIG. 1. The frame for supporting my device. is shownin,FlG. 2 and is not shown in FIG. 1. Anyv type of frame may be used andI have indicated in FIG. 2 a pair of spaced apart and parallely arrangedangle irons, indicated at D, D. A tu- V bularmember 1 extendstransverselybetween the two parallel angle irons D and is secured inplace by any means, such as by U-bolts 2 and nuts 3, as shown in FIG. 2:

My device comprises an outer conveyor belt wiper and an inner conveyorbelt wiper. I will first describe the outer belt wiper and will followthis by a description of the inner belt wiper. The outer wiper for theconveyor belt consists of two short sleeves 4 and 5 that are rockablymounted on the tubular support 1 and are spaced apart. The sleeve 4carries a radially extending arm 6 which is preferably tubular andhollow to make it light in weight and yet strong. The arm 6 is welded orotherwise secured to the sleeve 4. In like manner, the sleeve 5 carriesa radially extending arm 7 that lies in the same plane as the arm 6 andalso is tubular and hollow to make it light in weight. The arm 7 ispreferably welded to the sleeve 5. I

The arms 6 and 7 are of the same length and their outer ends are weldedor otherwise secured to a transversely extending carrier 8 that supportsa conveyor belt wiping element E, see FIGS. 2 and 3. The wiping elementB may be made of any material desired, such as rubber or metal. Thewiper carrier 8 has a flange 9 at its lower edge that will support thewiping element E. The upper edge of the carrier 8 has a rearwardlyextending flange 10 that will give rigidity to the carrier. Atransversely extending strap 11 extends across the outer face of thewiping element E and the ends of the strap may be bent at right-anglesand welded to the ends of the carrier 8. The length of the wipingelement inclined arms by a plate 29 and a cable 30 extending from theplate to the weight H. The forward ends of the angled tubular arms 27and 28 are welded or otherwise secured to the inner sleeve 20 while therear ends of the same arms are welded to the plate 29. The forward endof the plate 29 may be welded tothe sleeve 20 while the rear end of theplate has the cable 30 connected thereto. It is obvious that a coil,spring could be subarms at their juncture by a plate 14 and a cable 15extending from the plate to the weight. The forward ends of the arms 12and 13 are welded'or otherwise secured to the sleeves'4 and 5 that arerockably mounted on the tubular pivotal support 1. The weight F can beadjusted to cause the wiping element to contact the conveyor belt Bwiththe desired amount of pressure. The sleeves 4 and5 are held from anylateral movement along the tubular member 1 by collars 16 and 17, seeFIG. 2. A coil spring, not shown, could besubstituted for the weight P,if desired. The plate 14 is preferably welded between the rear ends ofthe angularly and rearwardly extending arms 12 and 13.

I provide a second and inner wiping element G whose supporting frame isalso rockably carried by the tubular I transversely extending pivotalsupport l, see FIGS. 1 and 2. A part of the supporting frame for theinner wiping element G includes an elongated sleeve 20 rockably mountedon the tubular member 1, and positioned between the two sleeves 4 and 5,see FIG. 2. The ends of the sleeve 20 contact with the inner ends of thesleeves .4 and 5 so as to prevent any lateral movement tubular arms 21and 22 are welded near the ends of the sleeve 20 and these arms areparallely arranged with respect to each other and extend radially fromthe axis of the sleeve 20. A transversely extending carrier 23 is weldedto the outer ends of the two arms 21 and 22 and of the sleeve2ll alongits tubular support 1. A pair of the carrier has a lowerflange 24,seeFIG. 1, that supports the lower edge of the inner wiping element G.The length of the carrier 23 is coextensive with the length of the innerwiping element G and both are free to swing between the pair of arms 6and 7, as is clearly shown in FIG. 2. The inner carrier 23 has anupper'and rearwardly extending flange 25 for giving rigidity to thecarrier. The top of the inner wiping element G extends above theupper'flange 25 of the inner carrier 23. A transversely extending strap26 engages with the outer face of the wiping element G for holding it inthe carrier 23 and the ends of the strap are bent at right angles andare secured to the ends of the carrier. It will be seen that the supportfor the inner conveyor belt wiping element G is substantially the sameas the support for the outer wiping element E.

The inner wiping element G-is yieldingly held incontact with the'conveyor belt B by rearwardly extending and angularly inclined arms 27and 28, see FIGS. 1 and 2, and by a weight H that is connected to thetwo stituted for the weight H. The angled arms 27 and 28 and the plate29 are free to swing within the confines of the angled arms 12 and 1 3and the sleeves 4 and 5, see

FIG. 2. V

' OPERATION From the foregoing description of the various parts of thedevice, the operation thereof will be clearly understood. There areseveral advantages due to having a device in which an outer and an innerwiping element pivot about a common tubular member 1 and operateindependently of each'other. The main advantage is to provide a devicethat will effectively clean a conveyor- :belt of any residual matterthat might cling to thebelt after the belt delivers its load as ittravels around the head pulley A. The outer wiping element E mightpreferably be made of metal in order to withstand the tendency of anextremely sticky or icy material toadhereto the conveyor belt. The innerwiping element G might be made of rubber. It is often necessary toprovide two wiping members E and G of varying'degre es of hardness. Morethan one. .wiper, takes up additional space and, therefore, the idealcondition is to have both wipers operate off from a single pivotalsupport and have the inner wiper G disposed within the frame thatsupports the outer wiper E. This can be accomplished by disposing theframe that supports the inner wiping element G within the frame thatsupports the outer wiping element E. Thus the inner wiper supportingframe occupies space. that would otherwise be not used. The

dual conveyor wiping device can therefore occupy" no more space thanthat required for the frame which supportsthe outer wiping element.

With this construction it will be seen that both outer and inner wipingelements can be shifted as a unit by merely moving the common tubularsupporting member 1 around which each of the wiper supporting frames isfree to pivot independently of each other. The particular typeoffmounting illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 for the two wiping elements Eand G will permit the two wiping elements to work on any diameter headpulley A. The two wiping elements can operate off from the.

' would correspond to the crown of the head pulley or any other positionup to the snub pulley C. It is possible to have the pivotal support 1for the two, wiping elements E and. G to be swung around the axis of thehead pulley A, thereby changing the dual wipers to any ideal positiondesired. The head pulley A is usually crown-shaped so as to have itsgreatest diameter at the midpoint of the head pulley. In

pulley.

tapered portions of the crown I Most conveyor belts B have a snub pulleyin order to increase the angle of wrap that the belt has with its headpulley. This reduces the area of belt length in which the belt wiper canoperate. in my invention 1 mount the inner wiping element G and itssupporting frame within the frame that supports the outer wiping elementE. This is made possible because both frames for the inner and outerwiping elements pivot about a common tubular member. The inner wipingelement G could be a rotating brush, not shown, that is motor driven.Both of the wiping elements E and G are easily replaceable.

I claim:

1. A dual wiping device for a conveyor belt comprisa. an elongatedcommon pivotal support arranged close to a head pulley, the axis of saidelongated common pivotal support paralleling the axis of the headpulley;

b. an outer wiping element extending substantially across the entirewidth of a conveyor belt that is wrapped around the head pulley;

c. a first rigid frame supporting said outer wiping element on one sideof the common pivotal support and being rockably carried by said pivotalsupport, said frame having a portion extending on to the opposite sideof said pivotal support;

. a first yielding meansconnected to said first frame on the oppositeside of saidpivotal support from that which supports said outer wipingelement, for yieldingly holding said first wiping element in contactwith substantially the entire width of the conveyor'belt;

e. an inner wiping element extending transversely across the greaterportion of the width of the conveyor belt;

f. a second rigid frame supporting said inner wiping element in aposition lying between said outer wiping element and said common pivotalsupport, said second frame lying within the area enclosed by said firstframe and being rockably carried by said common pivotal support, saidsecond frame having a portion extending onto the opposite side of saidpivotal support and lying within the area enclosed by the portion ofsaid first frame that extends on the opposite side of said pivotalsupport; and

g. a second yielding means connected to said second frame on theopposite side of said pivotal support from that which supports saidinner wiping element, for yieldingly holding. said second wiping elementin contact withthe conveyor belt and independently of the action of saidfirst wiping element.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1: and in which a. said firstframe includes a pair of spaced apart which a. the portion of said firstframe that extends on the opposite side of said pivotal support fromthat of said first wiping element includes a pair of rearwardlyextending arms, one of the rearwardly extending arms being rigidlyconnected to one of said sleeves and the other rearwardly extending armbeing rigidly connected to the other sleeve, both arms extending-at anangle to the sleeves and meeting each other at their rear ends; and

connected to said rearwardly extending arms at their juncture.

4. The combination as set forth in claim 2: and in which a. said secondframe includes an elongated sleeve that is rotatably mounted on saidcommon pivotal support and lies between the pair of spaced apartsleeves;

. a pair of radially extending arms rigidly connected to said elongatedsleeve and paralleling the forwardly projecting arms that are carried bysaid spaced apart sleeves and lying inside of these arms; and

c.'a second carrier supporting said inner wiping element and beingrigidly connected to said radially extending arms that are carried bysaid elongated sleeve.

5. The combination as set forth in claim 4: and in which a. the portionof said second frame that extends on the opposite side of said pivotalsupport from that of said second wiping element includes a pair ofrearwardly extending arms rigidly connected to said elongated sleeve,both arms extending at an angle and lying inside of the rearwardlyextending arms connected to said spaced apart sleeves, and abutting eachother at their rear ends; and

b. said second yielding means including a counterweight connected' tosaid rearwardly extending arm'sat their juncture, these arms beingcarried by said elongated sleeve. i

' l l i said first yielding means including a counterweight

1. A dual wiping device for a conveyor belt comprising: a. an elongatedcommon pivotal support arranged close to a head pulley, the axis of saidelongated common pivotal support paralleling the axis of the headpulley; b. an outer wiping element extending substantially across theentire width of a conveyor belt that is wrapped around the head pulley;c. a first rigid frame supporting said outer wiping element on one sideof the common pivotal support and being rockably carried by said pivotalsupport, said frame having a portion extending on to the opposite sideof said pivotal support; d. a first yielding means connected to saidfirst frame on the opposite side of said pivotal support from that whichsupports said outer wiping element, for yieldingly holding said firstwiping element in contact with substantially the entire width of theconveyor belt; e. an inner wiping element extending transversely acrossthe greater portion of the width of the conveyor belt; f. a second rigidframe supporting said inner wiping element in a position lying betweensaid outer wiping element and said common pivotal support, said secondframe lying within the area enclosed by said first frame and beingrockably carried by said common pivotal support, said second framehaving a portion extending onto the opposite side of said pivotalsupport and lying within the area enclosed by the portion of said firstframe that extends on the opposite side of said pivotal support; and g.a second yielding means connected to said second frame on the oppositeside of said pivotal support from that which supports said inner wipingelement, for yieldingly holding said second wiping element in contactwith the conveyor belt and independently of the action of said firstwiping element.
 2. The combination as set forth in claim 1: and in whicha. said first frame includes a pair of spaced apart sleeves rotatablymounted on said common pivotal support; b. a radially extending andforwardly projecting arm rigidly connected to each sleeve; and c. afirst carrier supporting said outer wiping element and being rigidlyconnected to said radially extending arms.
 3. The combination as setforth in claim 2: and in which a. the portion of said first frame thatextends on the opposite side of said pivotal support from that of saidfirst wiping element includes a pair of rearwardly extending arms, oneof the rearwardly extending arms being rigidly connected to one of saidsleeves and the other rearwardly extending arm being rigidly connectedto the other sleeve, both arms extending at an angle to the sleeves andmeeting each other at their rear ends; and b. said first yielding meansincluding a counterweight connected to said rearwardly extending arms attheir juncture.
 4. The combination as set forth in claim 2: and in whicha. said second frame includes an elongated sleeve that is rotatablymounted on said common pivotal support and lies between the pair ofspaced apart sleeves; b. a pair of radially extending arms rigidlyconnected to said elongated sleeve and paralleling the forwardlyprojecting arms that are carried by said spaced apart sleeves and lyinginside of these arms; and c. a second carrier supporting said innerwiping element and being rigidly connected to said radially extendingarms that are carried by said elongated sleeve.
 5. The combination asset forth in claim 4: and in which a. the portion of said second framethat extends on the opposite side of said pivotal support from that ofsaid second wiping element includes a pair of rearwardly extending armsrigidly connected to said elongated sleeve, both arms extending at anangle and lying inside of the rearwardly extending arms connected tosaid spaced apart sleeves, and abutting each other at their rear ends;and b. said second yielding means including a counterweight connected tosaid rearwardly extending arms at their juncture, these arms beingcarried by said elongated sleeve.